Kolkata Raises Awareness on Wellbeing
- The Global Academy, Kolkata celebrates a day to spread awareness on health & lifestyle management
- The seminar emphasized the critical need for Holistic Diagnosis and Treatment
- The GOI is spending just 1.3 percent of the GDP for public healthcare, there remains a severe scarcity of doctors in the country
- People continue to incur heavy medical expenditure across rural and urban hospitals
- One allopathic government doctor in India attends to a population of 11,082, which is 10 times more than the WHO recommended a doctor-population ratio of 1:1,000
- The infant mortality rate at the national level stands at its lowest - 34 per 1,000 live births - however, the gap between rural (38) and urban (23) mortality rate is still high
- The highest figure of deaths due to rabies was reported from WB (26) & Karnataka (15)
- These are among the grim facts recorded in the National Health Profile 2018, an annual report released by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI)
By Didhiti Ghosh, Bureau Chief (Kolkata), Indian Observer Post
Kolkata, April 24, 2019: Universal health coverage is the WHO’s key goal, and achieving it must ensure that everyone can obtain the care they need, when they need it, right in the heart of the community. Progress is being made in countries in all regions of the world, but there remain millions who yet have no access at all to health care. Millions more are forced to choose between health care and other daily expenses such as food, clothing and even basic shelter.
Taking a clue to the above, The Global Academy in collaboration with the International Institute of Lifestyle Management organized an International Seminar to discuss this pressing issue of lifestyle diseases on 6th April 2019. The same took precedence on the eve of the World Health Day at Hotel Hindustan International, Kolkata.
The Seminar emphasized the critical need for Holistic Diagnosis and Treatment where the emphasis should be not only be focused on the short-term treatment of the lifestyle disease at hand, but also the identification of the cause of such lifestyle disease and eliminating the latter in entirety. This is the only way to achieve better healing and enhanced health.
Suresh Kumar Agarwal, President of The Global Academy says that lifestyle-related diseases also referred to as the new-age ailments are on the rise in India, which is a new threat to a healthy life.
“Caused by a lack of physical activity and unhealthy eating habits, these chronic diseases are now leading to cardiovascular problems, obesity, stroke, Type II diabetes, and several other ailments. In India, the death rate is nearly four times higher from respiratory diseases caused by an unhealthy lifestyle,” says Agarwal.
With the Government sparing just 1.3 percent of the GDP for public healthcare, way less than the global average of 6 percent, there remains a severe scarcity of doctors in the country and people continue to incur heavy medical expenditure across rural and urban hospitals. These are among the grim facts recorded in the National Health Profile 2018, an annual report released recently by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI).
According to the report, one allopathic government doctor in India, on an average, attends to a population of 11,082, which is 10 times more than the WHO recommended a doctor-population ratio of 1:1,000.
Delhi is better in terms of doctor-population ratio amongst other states, where the ratio stands at 1:2203, which is still twice the recommended ratio by WHO. This dismal figure puts India below other low-income nations like Maldives (9.4), Bhutan (2.5), Sri Lanka (1.6) and Nepal (1.1). Globally, Sweden spends the largest chunk on public healthcare by dedicating 9.2 percent of its GDP.
Focusing on aiding universal health coverage which is the World Health Organization’s number one goal, the Seminar was attended by more than 200 spirited and enthusiastic participants from around the country and different parts of the world.
Agarwal also expressed the critical need for lifestyle management in modern day society through continuous research and launching of integrated health programs and remedies such as regularizing a Mediterranean diet, practicing exercise, getting sufficient sleep & peaceful relaxation and several other adaptive measures to prevent the occurrence of diseases and reduce its impact through lifestyle modifications.
With communicable diseases like rabies having a 100 percent fatality rate amongst 97 cases reported in the year 2018, it remained one of the most lethal diseases in the country for the year. The highest figure of deaths due to rabies was reported from West Bengal (26) and Karnataka (15). Japanese Encephalitis (JE), a kind of an infection of the brain caused by the JE virus, continues to claim lives with 12 percent mortality rate amongst 2,180 cases. The maximum number of cases (693) of JE and death (93) were reported from Uttar Pradesh, the highest since 2013.